The word 'tea', when opened, means' a person among the plants and trees'. On Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, Yunnan, this artistic conception has been present for thousands of years.
This ancient tea mountain, with an average altitude of 1400 meters, features a unique spatial combination of forests, ancient tea forests, and villages interwoven and coexisting. The mountains share the forest, the forest produces tea, and the tea surrounds the village.
23-year-old Yan Wenfa comes from Jingmai Village, Huimin Town, Lancang County. He brought the reporter to the Dapingzhang Ancient Tea Forest in Jingmai Mountain. Here, there are towering ancient trees as well as newly planted saplings, with different levels of green covering the entire hillside. The tranquility of time and the vitality of life are intertwined.
Under these tall trees, ancient tea trees are scattered haphazardly. The tea planting techniques passed down from our ancestors can be simply put as tea is grown under the forest, "said Yan Wenfa.
From a distance, it looks like a forest, but up close, it looks like a tea forest, "Zhang Pisheng, director of the Pu'er Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Protection and Management Bureau, told reporters. The Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest has a history of over a thousand years and is a typical representative of the world's well preserved, large area, and long planting history of artificially cultivated ancient tea forests, with a concentrated contiguous area of 18000 acres.
In the tea forest, there is a "Tea God Tree" tied with red cloth strips, which is worshipped by villagers every spring before tea mining; There is an ancient banyan tree called the "Bee God Tree", with dozens of fan-shaped beehives hanging on stacked trunks... Local people respect and love nature, believing that tea trees have spirits and nature has spirits.
Amidst the vegetation, the fragrance of tea lingers for thousands of years.
After a long period of production and life practice, the Jingmai Mountain ethnic group has created a series of tea cultures, including tea cultivation, tea consumption, tea tasting and singing. Marriage, funerals, weddings, and discussing important matters... here, many things are resolved over tea.
Last September, the cultural landscape of Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest in Pu'er was successfully applied for World Heritage, becoming China's 57th World Heritage Site and the world's first tea themed World Cultural Heritage Site. Jingmai Mountain has gained more awareness and attracted more people to arrive.
At Wengji Ancient Village in Jingmai Mountain, the rain is sometimes pouring and sometimes dripping, but there are still many tourists. The inn run by Zhang Guangming, a villager from Mangjing Village in Huimin Town, also accommodated several tourists.
I started selling tea and operated homestays mainly for tea merchants. After successfully applying for World Heritage status, there were more and more tourists in the village, and I opened a second homestay, "said Zhang Guangming.
Data shows that since September 2023, Jingmai Mountain has received a total of 402000 tourists and achieved tourism revenue of 338 million yuan.
On the basis of leveraging the natural resources and ecological environment advantages of Jingmai Mountain, we have established a development positioning led by the Pu'er tea industry and integrated with the 'tea culture and tourism' industry. We have introduced advanced technology and equipment, and improved processing technology and processes, "said Chonggang, Changyang, Huimin Town.
While promoting high-quality development, high-level protection continues to advance.
The successful application for World Heritage status means greater responsibility and higher standards for us, "said Zhang Pisheng. In January of this year, the" Technical Specifications for the Protection and Management of Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest "began to be implemented, which provides technical specifications for the daily management and tree maintenance of ancient tea forests, further promoting the effective protection, scientific management, and rational utilization of ancient tea forests.
In no time, the autumn tea harvest of Jingmai Mountain will begin, and the villagers are looking forward to a good harvest.
Yan Wenfa told reporters that the tea trees planted by our ancestors have fed generations of Jingmai's children. Taking over the ancient tea forest left by our ancestors, we must protect them like we protect our eyes
Forest and tea coexist, and people and land prosper together. On Jingmai Mountain, the wonderful concerto composed by humans and nature continues...